gay
/ɡeɪ/ adjective, noun, verb, adverb, proper noun
Forms gayer gayest gays gaying gayed
- adjective (of a person) Only possessing sexual and/or romantic attraction towards people one perceives to be the same sex or gender as oneself. “Cliff is gay, but his twin brother is straight.”
- adjective (strictly) Of a man, only romantically and/or sexually attracted to other men. “gay and lesbian people”
- adjective (of an animal, by extension) Tending to partner or mate with other individuals of the same sex.
- adjective (of a romantic or sexual act or relationship) Between two or more persons perceived to be of the same sex or gender as each other. “Although the number of gay weddings has increased significantly, many gay and lesbian couples — like many straight couples — are not interested in getting married.”
- adjective (colloquial) Not heterosexual, or not cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc.
- adjective (of an institution or group) Intended for gay people, especially gay men. “She professes an undying love for gay bars and gay movies, and even admits to having watched gay porn.”
- adjective (slang, with for) Homosexually in love with someone.
- adjective (slang, humorous, with for) Infatuated with something, aligning with homosexual stereotypes.
- noun (now chiefly in the plural) A homosexual, especially a male homosexual.
- noun (informal, often derogatory or ironic) Gayness: the quality of being gay. “Anti-gay persecution holds that you can pray the gay out of a person, or scare it out of them, or cajole it out of them.”
- noun (dialectal, obsolete) Something which is bright or colorful, such as a picture or a flower.
- noun (obsolete) An ornament, a knick-knack.
- verb (transitive, dated, uncommon) To make happy or cheerful.
- verb (transitive, uncommon) To cause (something, e.g. AIDS) to be associated with homosexual people.
- adverb (Scotland, Northern England) Considerably, very.
- noun The letter —, which stands for the sound /ɡ/, in Pitman shorthand.
- proper noun An English surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a cheerful or lively person.
- proper noun A female given name from English, from the word gay (“joyful”); rare today.
- proper noun A male given name from English.
- proper noun A male given name transferred from the surname.
Synonyms
queer ghey homosexual homosexual person and Thesaurus:male homosexual homophile homo cheery sunny jocund jolly jovial merry mirthful brave braw festal festive
Etymology
From Middle English gay, from Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”), from Gothic *𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*gaheis, “impetuous”), merging with earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), from Frankish *gāhi; both from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”). This is possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride, step”), from *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”), but Kroonen rejects this derivation and treats the Germanic word as having no known etymology.
cognates and sense derivation
Cognate with Dutch gauw (“fast, quickly”), Westphalian Low German gau, gai (“fast, quick”), German jäh (“abrupt, sudden”).
Anatoly Liberman, following Frank Chance and Harri Meier, believes Old French gai was instead a native development from Latin vagus (“wandering, inconstant, flighty”), with *[w] > [g] as in French gaine.
The sense of homosexual (first recorded no later than 1937 by Cary Grant in the film Bringing Up Baby, and possibly earlier in 1922 in the poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein) was shortened from earlier gay boy ("young male prostitute") and gay cat ("homosexual boy") in underworld and prison slang, itself first attested about 1935, but used earlier for a young tramp or hobo attached to an older one.
Pejorative usage is due to hostility towards homosexuality.
The sense of ‘upright’, used in reference to a dog’s tail, probably derives from the ‘happy’ sense of the word.
From Pitman kay, which it is derived from graphically, and the sound it represents. The traditional name gee was considered inappropriate, as the Pitman letter never has the sound of that name.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Excited with merriment; manifesting sportiveness or delight; inspiring delight; livery; merry.
- adjective Brilliant in colors; splendid; fine; richly dressed.
- noun An ornament [Obs.] L'Estrange.
Etymology [F. gai, perhaps fr. OHG. g swift, rapid, G. gäh, jäh, steep, hasty; or cf. OHG. w beatiful, good. Cf. Jay.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gay”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details